This was the first time that the Serpentine Gallery hosted the Barclays Young Artist Award Exhibition – a national prize in its seventh year.
The Young Artist Award was conceived to help an artist as they emerged from their postgraduate studies. £10,000 was awarded to the winner and another £10,000 shared amongst the rest of the exhibiting finalists.
The judges chose the finalists from postgraduate shows the year before. Previously the award had been confined to painters, but for the first time at the Serpentine, eligibility was extended to sculptors and artists working in other media. This led to a show more representative of the wide range of activity to be encountered in an art school.
The winner of the 1991 Young Artist Award was Tania Kovats, for her work Blind Paradigm.
Judged by: Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, Mel Gooding and artist Bruce McLean, in consultation with Alister Warman and Andrea Schlieker
